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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Six - Git Good

  I kept my distance fru while I studied him. He was qui the charge, but not faster than I was. His fil gave him det range and a lot of power to his strikes, but after the initial hit it was slow to e bad strike again.

  He was tough too, but that hysically. Mentally he seemed a bit... off. Which I realized was a very rude thing to think about someone and I’d have to apologize once I was doing him up to teach him how to have fun.

  “Alright Broc,” I muttered to myself. “Just o git gud.”

  I rolled forwards, ended on the balls of my feet, and shot straight up and out of the reach u’s falling fil.

  The man roared as he looked up to follow my path.

  It made it extra easy to nd with my feet up on his shoulders.

  Strong he might have been, but he couldn’t handle all of my weight dragging him bad down. Just as he started to tip back, arms swinging around to try and bat me off, I swung myself backwards so that I was standing almost perpendicur to his chest. Then I fired a burst of stamina into a jump.

  I went up into the air.

  Arugu went in the opposite dire.

  He nded hard on his back, fil cttering to the grouo him.

  “Ohh, the little bunny has some bite. Arugu, on his back, prone as be! But Broccoli isn’t taking it. What is she waiting for?” Zac shouted from above. The crowd was eating it up. I just found it kind of grating.

  “See how I did that?” I asked. “I tried not to hurt you, and now you’ve learnt an important lesson! This is how sparring should be,” I said.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Arugu roared as he jumped to his feet. “And when I’m doh you, I’m going to pluck the wings off that bird you were with, and that little blonde one? Oh, I’m going to have fun with her!”

  My smile froze.

  Balling my hands into fists, I stomped over to the man. “Mister Arugu, you ’t just say things like that. You shouldn’t evehinking about them,” I said as I side stepped a vertical swipe from his fil.

  I reached out and grabbed his wrist.

  He grabbed my arm with his other hand. “Got you,” he growled.

  I smiled back. “You sure did.”

  I bunched up my legs under me and, using his arm as a sort of pivot, spun around so that I was hanging sideways, feet towards his tummy.

  Then I kicked as hard as I could.

  Arugu sprayed me with spit as he bent over double. He let go of my arm a me fall, but I wasn’t over with him yet.

  Twisting around in mid-air, I nded on my hands, then pushed stamina into them to throw myself bato the air, all while still spinning.

  When I reached the apex of my jump, I wrenched myself around and shot out with one foot in a sort of horizontal roundhouse that ended with the heel of my sneaker impag Arugu's .

  The man crumpled.

  I nded and spun around to bleed off the excess energy from my jump. It ended with me standing above Arugu, both hands on my hips. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Ding! For repeating a Special A a suffit number of times you have unlocked the general skill: Kig bat Proficy!

  “Oh, that’s ,” I said.

  Ding! Four of your current skills are eligible for Merging: Hopping, Kig bat Proficy, Physical Manakinesis, Makeshift ons Proficy.

  “World’s tit’s she khat man out cold! Arugu the bloodletter is out! And without so much as a drop of Broccoli’s blood spilled!” Zac shouted.

  The walls went down around the arena and the sound of the crowd, oed, hit me like a battering ram. I winced, but smiled and waved all the same.

  It was a mistake, waving just made them cheer all the louder.

  I gave up on that and instead used a bit of ing magic to get rid of the sweat I’d built up and the bit of spit Arugu had sprayed when I’d hit him. I was about to che the man when a team of sylphs jumped onto the stage and rushed over to his side. They pressed glowing hands into his side until one of them, the oh the fa hat, nodded. “He’s clear,” he said.

  “Ma’am, do you need assistance?” another sylph asked.

  I shook my head. “No, thanks, my hit points are full,” I said. He nodded and moved over to the others who were tapping Arugu on the cheeks and waking him up.

  I looked up to see Zac, still talking to the crowds and cheering them on into greater fervor. I o have a talk with him, and my friends.

  “Ma’am, this way,” clipbuy said as he ran up to me. He oo-gently started to push me towards the back of the arena.

  “Hey!” I said. “I wao go see my friends.” I poio the stands where my friends were cheering, Awen, surprisingly, loudest of them all. I could hear her ‘I love you Broccoli’ from all the way down where I was.

  “You’ll have the opportunity to see them during the intermission. We ’t allow you to wander until then.”

  I wao disagree, but it would have been impolite, and the hing I knew I was being pushed into the rge waiting room.

  “Huh,” the rge amazon I’d spoken to before was the first to speak. “You made it. And you’re not even covered in blood.”

  I tried on a smile, if only to hide my bit of annoyance. “I have ing,” I expined before stepping deeper into the room. I was soon ignored by all the hters again. After the fight I just had, that suited me just fine.

  Stepping deeper into the building and past the armory, I found a little kitette area at the back. It was a little rude to just use someone else’s kettle, but I had a bag of tea oill and I could really use a moment to calm down. So I set some water to boil atop a little rune-powered stove in one er and sat down to think.

  First, the fight. For all that it had been violent, and a little scary, it was also fun. Was I being some sort of adrenaline junkie?

  Nah, that couldn’t be. It was just some normal fun, like sports but a bit more physical.

  I shook my head and looked at my notifications.

  You have twe Skills avaible. Way of the Killer Bun - Hopping, Kig bat Proficy, Makeshift on’s ProficyWay of the Mysti - Hopping, Kig bat Proficy, Physical Manakinesis

  Those... both sounded kind of cool. I frowned and tried t up more information about them, but got nothing for my efforts.

  The kettle started to whistle so I pulled it off and poured the tea into a cup I’d snatched from a cupboard. It tasted pretty good once I’d blown it cool.

  So, twe skills. And I could only pick the one? I’d be losing some skills, but Amaryllis had said that merged skills generally retained a bit of their earlier skills... skillness.

  I needed more words for skill reted stuff.

  HoppingRank C - 100%The Ability to hop. Your reflexes and timing for hops has increased. You ow hop higher and farther. You may now expend Stamina to increase the power of your hops.

  Was it worth it? I thought so. Pig from the two was also easy as pie.

  Ding! You have Merged the following skills:HoppingKig bat ProficyPhysical ManakinesisYou have unlocked the skill:Way of the Mysti1 amon Bun Bun Css Skill Point Refunded!Do you wish to pce this skill as a Css Skill eneral Skill?

  That was an easy choice too. Into the css slot freed by Hopping it went. I dowhe rest of my tea thehe results.

  Way of the MystiRank F - 00%You have discovered the path of the Mysti, biniating magic-ced physical attacks with incredible mobility.

  “Okay?” I wohat wasn’t helpful at all.

  The cheering from the crowds outside were a good remihat I was going to be fighting again, and soon. I... I o prepare. I dowhe rest of my tea, ed up my kettle and cup--because I wasn’t some barbarian that didn’t do the dishes--and pced everything back where I’d found it.

  Stepping bato the main room, I looked around, then walked over to the two guards standio the armory. “Ah, hello,” I said.

  The older of the two o me. “Ma’am,” he said.

  “Um. If I want a on, do I o do something?”

  He nodded. “You’re only allowed ons from this armory in the ring. You o sign them off with one of us, aur the end of the day, or when you’re elimihey’re all ented to do reduced damage against living tissue. Tricky bit of entment that.”

  “Oh, ,” I said. “So I just... go in?”

  He stepped to the side. “Enjoy yourself.”

  Grinning, I stepped into the room and took it all in. There were racks and racks of swords, shields, spears and axes. There were stranger ons too. Whips and fils and tridents.

  None of them caught my eye as much as the ohing sitting in the er of the room and colleg dust.

  It erfect. A little square, but with plenty of handholds. There was a H-bar at its base ag as reinfort, and the back had a bunch of straight ribs that looked nid tough. It was only about waist high, and lifting it showed that it was on the heavier side, but that was okay.

  I set it against my shoulder and walked out of the door. “I’ll use this,” I said.

  The guard blinked. “Ma’am, that is a chair.”

  “Yeah,” I firmed. “So do I o sign something?”

  “That’s a chair,” he repeated.

  I nodded. “Yep. I haven’t actually tried sitting on it yet, but I’m sure it works just fine.”

  The guard scratched at his head, looked to his buddy, and after sharing some shrugs bad forth, he pulled a clipboard off of a nail holding it to the wall behind him. “Just sign here, I guess,” he said.

  I looked over the dot, skimmed it real fast, then took the penext to it and signed my name in and wrote ‘a chair’ in the right box. “Thank you,” I said before I stepped back.

  I took my new chair and sat off to one side of the room. I would have to be careful in my fight. No hoppi way less mobility. Still, I retty sure I could move the same way by pushing stamina into my limbs, I just didn’t have a skill to make it easy for me anymore. I hopped on the spot a few times to test it out, and it seemed... okay?

  A bit annoying, but I would give it my all heless!

  I shifted on my seat, then jumped to my feet. If I was going to be bored, I might as well grind some skills while I was at it.

  It was time for another cup of tea.

  ***